You pass it on your way to Yates; you drive by it in the GUTS bus as you enter campus from Prospect Street; you gaze out on it from your dormitory window; it looms before you as you descend the stairs of Village C or the hill by New South. No matter who you are on campus, chances are you’ve noticed the huge hole in the southwest corner of campus. But do you really know what’s going on in there? The Hole is almost completely encircled by a sturdy wire fence, and for safety reasons, pedestrians are not allowed to wander around the concrete mixers and other equipment surrounding the site. The Hole and the people who work there are a mystery to most Georgetown students.
Many students know slightly more about the layout of the finished product of this $168.5 million project. When completed, the Southwest Quadrangle will consist of a U-shaped residence hall complex, a dining hall and Jesuit community residence, all set around a landscaped courtyard, according to project blueprints. The three connected residence halls, two with six stories and one with eight, will each house between 250 and 300 students. The dining hall will feature a football-shaped atrium with a seating capacity of 1,200. The Jesuit residence will include a meeting space, a chapel and private living quarters better suited to address the needs of elderly Jesuits, as described on the Southwest Quadrangle website.
Underneath the brick and cast-stone buildings, a four-level parking garage and maintenance facility will accommodate approximately 815 vehicles and replace the temporary parking facility, Lot T. Contrary to popular belief, the new garage will not increase the number of parking spaces available on campus, which is capped at 4,080, including MedStar parking. A system of card readers and student guards, similar to that in other buildings on campus, will prevent patrons of the garage from freely accessing the residence halls above, said Executive Director of Facilities Karen Frank.
According to Frank, Georgetown currently houses 78 percent of its undergraduate students on campus. After the Southwest Quadrangle is finished, that number will jump to about 92 percent, the highest of any university in Washington, D.C. “I believe that at the completion of this project we will be able to house all undergraduate students who want to live on campus,” she said.
For now, however, the Southwest Quadrangle project consists of three cranes, a concrete mixer, countless trucks and an enormous but quickly disappearing hole. Construction should be up to grade (or ground level) in about a month. Winter storms should not hold up construction in the coming months. The crew has lost only one day to weather since the project began in October 2000, said Frank. If it snows on a deck where they are pouring concrete, for example, construction workers use heaters underneath the deck to melt the snow and continue pouring.
According to Frank, the date of occupancy and utilization of the finished project is fall 2003, which means that next year’s incoming first-year students will be the last class of Georgetown undergraduates to behold the Southwest Quadrangle’s construction. So, for the six classes who will witness this brief piece of our university’s history, and for generations of Hoyas to come, The Voice sent a reporter and a photographer beyond the fences and into the fabled Hole. These photographs capture a fundamental part of Georgetown’s present and its future. Don’t you want to know what really happened?
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Since ground was first broken for the Southwest Quadrangle in October 2000, almost all Georgetown students have endured inconveniences such as blocked pathways and altered traffic patterns. The brunt of the project, however, has been borne by the residents of the three first-year dormitories: New South, Harbin and Village C.
Most complaints revolve around the noise, which often begins as early as 6 a.m. Residents of Village C West have been subjected to the loudest and most persistent noise. When asked to describe the sounds they often wake up to, residents could not quite agree on the precise nature of the racket. “Distinct clanging,” said one. Others referred to it “pounding,” “creaking,” “whirring” and “buzzing.”
To more than one Village C resident, even sleep is no guarantee of escape from the menace of the construction. “I can hear the noises in my dreams,” claims Joe Martin (CAS ‘05), who lives directly above the site on the fifth floor of Village C West.
In addition to the excessive noise, several Village C West residents voiced concern over the airborne particulate matter from the construction site. Particularly on the lower floors of Village C West, dust has been a problem. “Everything gets covered in dust,” said Keith Krause (SFS ‘05), whose computer screen is coated in a layer of grime. Blake J. Harris (MSB ‘05), a Village C West resident with allergies, was forced to replace his carpet because of the excessive dust in his room.
Many dormitory residents have also criticized the hole’s aesthetics. “It’s a blemish on the face of this campus,” said Christie Lerro (CAS ‘05). To Matt Lovecchio (MSB ‘05) the view from the west side of Village C is particularly unfortunate, given the picturesque views from other buildings on campus. “Some people look out the window and see Dahlgren Chapel. We look outside and see a bunch of cranes,” he lamented.
However, the experience of living next to a live construction site has not been without a certain amount of educational virtue. Several students noted that observing the excavation process has been interesting. “It’s been neat to watch,” said Krause. “Visually, I kind of like it.” Adam Doverspike (SFS ‘03) also finds the site fascinating. “It’s really impressive to see how it’s progressing,” he remarked. Polly Burokas (CAS ‘05) finds the activity down on the site distracting, which can be a problem while doing homework. “It’s more exciting than philosophy,” she said.
Though most students believe the Southwest Quadrangle will be good for the Georgetown campus, others are skeptical, if not downright cynical. “I think it’s a conspiracy for the administration to increase enrollment,” suggested Adam Engberg (SFS ‘03). “They told the BZA they wouldn’t increase enrollment, but with another 780 beds, it makes you wonder.”
Rob Hutton (SFS ‘04) had perhaps the most philosophical take on the construction, seeing it as a microcosm of sorts. “It’s representative of our Georgetown experience—all this money going into a hole.”
